421: Lightning Round
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:10
Hello,
Molly 0:11
art, our theme song sounds quaint and wholesome.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:16
I know it's our theme song. Me Johnny GarageBand. And I wrote that song.
Molly 0:24
Tonight's topic is glazed donut,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:26
of course. Thank you again to do I adore J. That's a very tough act to follow,
Molly 0:33
and extremely tough act to follow. So both Matthew and I have our mother's here in the audience tonight, which is always tricky. I think this is well, I think this is maybe the second live show that my mother has attended, and probably like the fourth for your mom. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:47
think so. Yeah.
Molly 0:48
And I'm amazed that we're still doing these live shows, given that our mothers attend to them that they
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:52
will not take them.
Molly 0:55
I know when my mom was like, I bought tickets for myself and all my friends. I was like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:00
going Molly's mom is named Tony and has brought at least one other Tony along with her and maybe more. How many Tony's are there? in total? There
Molly 1:08
are three Tony three Tony, Tony, Tony. Yes. So yeah, thank you for being here tonight. And thank you to dejuan for really making us look bad before we even start. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:18
This is this is our 10th Anniversary Show. I don't want to dwell on this 10th anniversary thing because it means we're really old and we're pretty great. But
Molly 1:32
yeah, no, it's we've come a long way. Yes. The first episode that we taped in, in my apartment kitchen in was it late? It was early 2010. Or maybe late 20. Late
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:43
Late 2009. Yes. Yeah, I
Molly 1:45
was so nervous. I'd never cooked for Matthew before matchless like recorded audio with him.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:51
Yeah, no, that was that was definitely our first time recording audio together.
Molly 1:55
It was memorable. Uh huh. Awkward. Opening the condom wrapper.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:01
Oh, my cuz I remember that part.
Molly 2:05
Anyway, the goat joke, guys.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:09
It's right. There were so many goats in Molly's apartment for some reason. It's very sexy. Yeah. So anyway, Matthew. Okay, so we are going to celebrate this anniversary by doing something we have never done before. That does not involve a condom.
Molly 2:23
And I can't. I can't
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:25
bear back. Oh, no, no, I say that. All right,
Molly 2:34
I'm out of here. And I can't figure out what to do with my mic. It's really awkward. Okay. Anyway, no, we've never done this before. And now that we have thought of it, at least at this point in the show, we think we want to do it every time we do a live episode. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:49
yeah, definitely count these.
Molly 2:51
Let's really set the stage. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:53
Okay. So here's what we're gonna do is we're gonna do we're calling this the lightning round, aka chunk style. And, I mean, you already know what we're gonna do because we did a call for topics but instead of choosing a topic, you know, if there's there's one thing we love, it's, it's doing extra work to prepare for an episode. So but this time we decided to forego that. And we've got this bowl of topics here. And we are going to do 10 episodes have spilled milk tonight, in front of you with no preparation entirely improvised.
Molly 3:24
Yes. And what I'm really excited about is we I mean, Matthew and I truly do not know what any of the suggestions were this evening, we set up a dedicated email address Yes, for people to send topic ideas, and it went straight to producer Abby and she kept it a secret from us. I'm so excited. I've never had a dedicated email address for anything
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:44
while I was more excited about this dedicated email address than I've ever seen her excited about. And
Molly 3:50
I know when we when we were talking this morning, and we were like, you know, we need to come up with our like opening bit and I was like a dedicated email address.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:58
I was like, Okay, okay, what about it was like No, just dedicated email address. People are gonna love it.
Molly 4:03
Yeah. Anyway, hold on. So we we need to discuss the ground rules now. Because you know, so other than the fact that we don't know as of this point in the evening, what any of the topics are Matthew, what are some of the other rules?
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:15
So some of the rules are we No peeking like we can't like like peek into the ball and and see what we're going to pick. We just have to go with what we get. We take turns drawing topics
Molly 4:25
and we cannot pass. Right? So any
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:28
topic that we choose, we have to do producer Abby has a buzzer and she is going to buzz us when our time is john, we have to move on to the next topic. Abby told me that she paid 99 cents on the App Store for the buzzer and is going to Bill us for that.
Molly 4:44
And the other thing is that we're going to so you know usually with our secret our secrets.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:51
I've no idea what's happening right now.
Molly 4:54
Usually with our episodes it is it follows a certain
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:58
judge we call them see
Molly 5:02
Usually with our episodes, we follow a certain sequence, right? So we've we've got our wholesome fanfare that we enter to. Okay. And then we introduce ourselves and we talk about our moms. That's right. And then we then we say what the show topic is and then we do memory lane. Okay, we're cutting straight to memory lane and we're limiting it to one sentence of memory lane per person. I want you to know how hard this is for me guys. Because I can easily do three to five minutes of memory lane. topics. Yeah, that's true. I just
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:36
really saying Do you think Abby's gonna bill us? 99 cents for every time she buzzes?
Molly 5:41
Yeah, okay. So anyway, okay, so those are the ground rules. Is there anything else that we hold on anything else? We can write Oh, okay. We have to stick with the topic until Abby buzzer and we must move on when the buzzer goes off. Does
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:57
that mean we have to stick with the topic like to the same extent that we usually stick with a topic? Yeah. Okay.
Molly 6:02
So if we're talking if somebody put in ham and cheese sandwiches, for instance, like our episode, like seven years ago, we can totally talk about making out Yes, okay. Okay. All right. Here we go.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:11
Who's picking first? We didn't decide. Oh, all right. I'm picking first. Okay. blocks, m&ms. Oh, m&ms memory lane.
Molly 6:20
So memory lane. So um, so I really like being on me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:26
Okay, great. No,
Molly 6:28
I my cousin met her husband at a party where my cousin was dressed up as the green m&m. Oh, see, huh?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:35
When I was in eighth grade, that was when I heard that green m&ms make you horny, and I heard this from my math teacher.
Molly 6:45
Have you ever tried it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:46
I tried. What eating green m&ms? Oh, yeah, seeing if it works. I mean, I guess it works in the sense that like, probably I ate some green m&ms, and then like, had some thoughts that I shouldn't share on stage.
Molly 6:59
What about like, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:00
don't know if it was the m&ms that had anything to do with
Unknown Speaker 7:03
that. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, I gotcha.
Molly 7:05
Do you feel that any particular m&ms variety is like more erotic than another.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:11
Oh, like a type of m&m?
Molly 7:15
The crunchy I mean, the crunchy that is a really really really complex crunch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:20
That's interesting, though, because I think of crunchy as one of the least erotic textures.
Unknown Speaker 7:25
It's true.
Molly 7:28
It's true. There's no although I was just talking the other day about what it's like when you accidentally bite your tongue or the inside of your cheek. It's
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:34
really more moronic than that.
Molly 7:36
Well, no, cuz I was trying to think about whether any body parts are crunchy.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:41
Crunchy, like like there's not any any good ways to fill in the blank. Like Like, baby Your blank is so crunchy. Right?
Molly 7:48
Yeah. What about the peanut butter ones?
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:51
There's are these are they sexy? Well, they are. Yeah, I think they are. When you said that. That was the first thing I thought was like the peanut butter ones. Like all the m&ms. Those are the ones that I most want to just like leave in my mouth and like sock on until the candy coating dissolves and starts to break down. And then the chocolate. Like the lining of your cheek and then like the like, like the lining of my cheeks dissolves.
Molly 8:15
I have hearing composer.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:16
No, no, no. I'm pretty sure that's not in the ground.
Molly 8:19
I'm sorry. Okay. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:22
You have to pay 99 cents to get your own buzzer.
Molly 8:25
Okay, anything else about m&ms? m&ms? How do you feel about mixing m&ms in with the popcorn at the movie theater?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:32
Love it. Absolutely love it. Okay, I think we I think we recently had movie night at my house and had m&ms and popcorn and I did do this and I was very satisfied.
Molly 8:42
Did you guys separate than the popcorn from the m&ms like you guys do when you buy mixed nuts? Has anybody heard heard Matthew talk about what his family does with a ton of mixed nuts. It is obscene.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:53
it's it's it's a it's a beautiful thing that the whole family can do together. We sit we sit and watch jeopardy. And and we we open up a big jar of of target mix nuts and we sort them into the types of nuts that each family member likes true.
Molly 9:08
It is true. I was over at Matthews house recently and I was like I'm a little hungry. I was about to leave. We'd finished our taping. I was like you have any nuts. He pulled out. Oh, thank god All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:24
Good thing. Good thing we got bus All right, you're up.
Molly 9:27
Okay, all right. Okay, I'm going to do a little blind, blind pickling tasting cannibalism.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:36
memory
Molly 9:38
has like a little a little winky face under it. And this is from Amanda Oh, right. cannibalism so I have always wanted to know, I've just always wanted to so are there like weird things that you really want to study up on? Like I've kind of always wanted to know about what it would be like to be in some sort of Like really insular religious sect, I've also wondered what it would be like to be in the Donner party. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:05
Yeah. Yeah. Is that is that your memory lane? I try to think like, when when did I get lost the cost to minimalism? Because I do remember hearing about the Donner party when I was a kid. And like, it didn't seem like as much of a party as the name implied, I guess.
Molly 10:23
Well, I feel like then that show Party of Five came out. And I was like, What is this? Like? What is this use of party? I've never heard this before. It doesn't seem like there any green m&ms here.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:35
But But Donner party if that's what you're hoping for?
Molly 10:38
Yeah. It had never never gambled in it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:40
Okay. But I think like we're dancing around the thing that everyone wants us to talk about, since this is a Food Show, which is, if you had to do
Molly 10:48
Yeah. What body part would you go for? Or would you go for
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:51
first?
Molly 10:52
Okay, well, so I think I would go for I'm thinking about like, what's going to be the most tender, right? And I'm thinking well, so you know, I was explaining to my daughter recently. Like how with different parts of the animal you will get for different lengths of time, you know, the muscles that get used more tougher, you need to cook them longer, really let the fat melt, right. So I'm thinking that I would go for maybe it's a tenderloin.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:23
say the same thing. Humans have a tender.
Molly 11:27
Like some sort of strip. What does anybody want to check? That strip along my back?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:31
Yeah, it's fine. But it but the tenderloins here like inside the rib cage, right. I
Molly 11:36
thought it was like just along the back.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:38
I don't know.
Molly 11:39
Anyway, what would you start with Matthew?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:41
Well, I feel like the tastiest part of every animal seems to be the shoulder so I guess I would go for the shoulder. But But you'd have to break would you?
Molly 11:50
Okay. What about like, and what aromatics? Would you go with
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:55
something something really strong? Like, I mean, we talked about braising things in me so this morning, I think like, like you really want like something that can stand up to what's probably a pretty gamey meat.
Molly 12:06
What makes you think it's a gamey meat
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:08
isn't all the stuff we eat, because I think humans are pretty lean compared to a lot of the animals we eat and like and like the muscles are pretty well exercised. Overall, it depends. Depending on the human. Does
Molly 12:20
anybody in here have any experience? Oh, no. No, you don't. Okay. Your turn. calzones
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:29
Okay. Oh, okay. I see.
Molly 12:32
This is so palatable. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:34
Okay, anything was gonna be palatable.
Molly 12:36
Take it away. Matthew.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:38
I have always loved calzones I definitely had them when I was a kid. I've always been really nervous about saying the word because I don't know if it's Cal zone or Cal zone. I think I've heard you say both we were we were definitely a calzone pronunciation family when I was growing up, but I felt like my friends would say Cal zone and I wanted to be a cool kid and I still feel very conflicted about it.
Molly 12:58
How do you feel about like when do you eat it? Because I think that's the thing with a kill zone, you know, it's like a it's like a large hot pocket. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:11
Type pocket came first. And then someone was like, What if we made this bigger and folded over pizza? Yeah,
Molly 13:18
yeah. Anyway notes but here's the issue with foods like that where
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:23
there's like pockets
Molly 13:26
on the inside, where there's like molten cheese on the inside. The thing is you want to eat it while it's still like hot and gooey but you also want to still have your cheek so that somebody can eat it later.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:38
You don't want to show true yeah, wait is this like in a cannibalistic sense or in
Molly 13:44
the magnetically to the cannibalism in the m&ms melts in your mouth?
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:49
You're like drawing a lot like a dotted line like like you've got a wall up here with like, with with string and pins and stuff trying to connect every topic we do.
Molly 13:58
I'm like Claire Danes, and what was that homeland?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:00
Yeah, I think I think you are like that. What was the question again?
Molly 14:04
So when do you eat it? Because it's very very, very hot. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:07
eat it when it is placed in front of me. Oh, do you mean like how long do I wait before it took for it to cool?
Molly 14:13
Yeah, do you wait or do you just suffer?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:17
I think I think I mean, I do suffer the heat. That's that's something I've always always done. I think I think I will like cut into it so that some of the steam can escape and then it cools down fast enough.
Molly 14:31
Okay. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:32
But do you when you when you have a castle and you want to like pick it up and eat it by hand? Are you a knife and fork?
Molly 14:36
I just noticed that I didn't do a memory lane. I've never had it Kelso.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:43
No way. Have you had a hot pocket?
Molly 14:45
I've not had a hot pocket or calzones Oh, wow.
I've had some pizza bagel. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:50
know what we're doing. Okay.
Molly 14:51
I don't know. Does that count? I don't like you know, like, like, like things that are pizza adjacent.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:58
Okay, what are other things okay, so Pizza bagels like pizza like, Reshma says French says.
Molly 15:06
Just add the French bread pizza.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:08
All the things Molly just said are delicious. No pizza English. My English Robin pizza is awesome. Trust me
Molly 15:17
anyway yeah, no, I've never had a kill zone.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:19
I will. buzzer cannot I will No, no, I will make you a cow's okay. Like I don't know if it's gonna Thank God
Molly 15:28
it's giving me heart palpitations. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:30
no, I love this.
Molly 15:31
Hold on. I feel like I should do Oh, I'm excited about this one everyone this is fish sauce. Oh, okay, here we go if this one is yours, thank you. Fish sauce. Okay, memory lane Memory Lane fish sauce. I think one of my first memories of fish sauce was I feel like fish sauce sort of like swept on to the scene for like, at least white Americans. Maybe? I don't know, like 15 years ago. 20
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:57
years ago I was about right. And
Molly 15:59
I remember making like a Vietnamese rice noodle salad with chicken in it. And if you ever noticed that chicken and fish sauce do a weird thing together where all of a sudden they both taste like tuna dope. I can't eat chicken and fish sauce together like I don't want a fish sauce dressing anywhere near my chicken. It all tastes like canned tuna. yolk is one of my favorite things. metamorphism
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:25
not a canned tuna fan. But one of my favorite things to make is lob like with with like groundsheet. Yeah, yeah, with a dressing with like fish sauce and lime juice and chilies and garlic and it does not taste anything like canned tuna. It
Molly 16:37
will take me down your memory lane.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:38
I have legitimate fish sauce memory lane. The first food article that I ever got paid to write was for the Sunday, Seattle Times.
Molly 16:46
Now you're not bragging What year was it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:49
I want to say 2001 2002. This
Molly 16:52
was around the time that I met Matthew at a chocolate tasting. Right? And I remember so I don't think that that Matthews child Iris had been born. We were both we little babies. I had a boyfriend who was a vegan. And we went to a chocolate tasting party that was held by by a couple who Matthew and I both knew through the food forum egullet. And I remember I thought Matthew seemed so old and wise.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:25
The I mean, the longer I do this show you like 29 probably the longer we do this show, the more we are the same age because it's true. Like like back then I probably was proportionally much older than you.
Molly 17:38
I should also say that the playlist we were listening to tonight is a playlist that Matthew and I made for producer Abby, who is significantly younger than both of us and didn't know any of the music that Matthew and I grew up with. So if any of you were feeling nostalgic listening to that music while you're probably closer to our age, than Abby's age, but anyway, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:59
so you got your start writing about fish. And I remember I went into the office like the editorial office of the of the Seattle Times Sunday magazine, and they showed me like my article, I'll paste it up. And it was great, except they'd given it the headline, the ketchup of Asia, and I'm like, that could not be more wrong. So as I saw, I was like, Can we redo that headline and they like, rewrote the headline right in front of me and I was like, I'm doing journalism. I love fish sauce. All right. Your turn my turn.
Molly 18:32
Guys. I can't tell you the relief that washes over me it's like I'm in cold sweats by the time the buzzer goes off and then all of a sudden the sweat evaporates and I start all over again.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:41
Alright, this is licorice and it says producer Abby loves and point out with an arrow pointing to licorice
Molly 18:47
so this possibly be from producer Abby No, it's
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:50
it's also has a name on it says it's from Alicia. Most of them don't have names on
Molly 18:55
licorice. We did a licorice episode years and years and years ago and you had a friend in Norway or Sweden.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:03
Denmark, maybe
Molly 19:06
I tried all the other Scandinavian country. Anyway, you had a friend who sent you some salted licorice and it was one of the most painful episodes I've ever done with you that
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:18
my memory my memory lane is Molly ate this salted licorice and it got stuck in her teeth because the
Molly 19:23
first time I ever cried in front of you
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:25
I think I like salted licorice I think it's great.
Molly 19:29
So okay, so So tell me about this Matthew with without the benefit of any research because you know we usually do all our research on Wikipedia that Matthew is having to do it right now in his own brain.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:39
Okay,
Molly 19:40
which is much harder. So what Tell me about salted licorice where
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:44
we know the story. So as I understand it, like the the double salted licorice is called double salted not because it has like twice the salt big but because it has two kinds of salt. Sodium chloride and ammonium chloride, I think so it's got like a Like you're in a Jason waiver, I would say
Molly 20:08
I got canceled so fast. All right. Okay. Okay. All right, my turn.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:13
Now I know how to make the buzzer habit.
Molly 20:14
Just saying urine adjacent. Okay. All right. harissa or her Risa, depending on how you say it. This is from someone in the audience tonight. Thank
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:25
you. Okay, so I know this is a spicy North African sauce. Yes. That's all I know about it. But
Molly 20:34
what about what about your memory lane?
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:36
That was it. Okay. Okay.
Molly 20:38
So when I was, when I was in my junior year of college, I did like two quarters in the Paris program with my college. And at that time, at that time, the the sort of restaurant that everybody was talking about, that wasn't fine dining, but it was supposed to be very sexy. You know, there's always like a restaurant in in any given city that's just opened that's like the sexy restaurant, but in Paris aren't
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:05
all of them. The second
Molly 21:07
restaurant that I remember hearing about was this Moroccan place called 404. Unfortunately, I think I probably took my mom,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:14
weightless. And you tried to find it, but it was not found. Okay,
Molly 21:26
it was called 404. Guys, this is like 1999. Anyway, it was very they had that in it. It was very dimly lit. And they had 10 genes and all sorts of things that we had never heard about at that time coming from where I came from. And anyway, that was my first encounter with her Risa and, and it clearly left a mark on me as being something you eat at sexy restaurants. Okay, that sounds great. Let's do you think you eat it sexy restaurant? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:52
don't know. I tried to go to a sexy restaurant once once called 301. But it had moved permanently to another location. Only in Seattle. Oh, that made me so happy. Was that the right code? Anyone note HTTP codes. All right. Oh,
Molly 22:12
yeah. You got somebody back there. Okay, you got somebody? Thank you. Okay, anyway, do you ever use Risa or hersa?
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:18
No, it's not like I have anything against it. It's just like, I think for any cook, there's like some ingredients that you have like always used and some you just like, haven't incorporated into your repertoire. And that's one of my it's true. I every time I've had it, I'm like, this is a high sauce. I like it.
Molly 22:34
I sent Matthew a photo of a recipe yesterday. It was a miso glazed salmon and it called for sakei. And I didn't have any socket. And Matthew writes me back like totally on ironically,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:44
I said, What can I substitute for soccer? I said you shouting wine?
Molly 22:48
And I was like, okay, like, why would I have shouting
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:54
wine? So I said use her, Reza.
Molly 22:59
Anyway,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:06
Seattle's best loaf of bread. Oh, I definitely have an opinion on this. Yeah, take it away. Okay, so and this is my memory lane also, because I think maybe like, possibly the first thing of Molly's that I ever remember reading was a post that she wrote on orangette about the walnut love van.
Molly 23:27
It was this short lived website called Seattle list. Oh, okay. And I had an unpaid writing job. Yes. It was awesome.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:36
When with this felt wealthy like,
Molly 23:40
this was like 2005
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:43
Yeah, that sounds right. And Molly wrote this article about the walnut love van from Columbia City Bakery. And I don't remember if I'd already had it or not, but that is my favorite bread. It's Yeah,
Molly 23:53
it still is now I
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:55
think it still is like, you know, I will they the Columbia City Bakery does a booth at the Broadway farmers market and sometimes I'll get the walnut lovin and is absolutely every bit as good as it always has been. It's just a brilliant loaf of bread. And I'm not super into flavored breads in general, but it's the best I feel
Molly 24:12
like this is a tricky topic because we're both so earnest about it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:16
I know. No,
Molly 24:18
I really love see wolf bakery in the Fremont area. Fremont Wallingford I don't know what
Unknown Speaker 24:26
it is new
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:26
Brady come
Molly 24:28
lately it is a Brady come lately it is already come lately. Anyway know what I really love about it is so my thing is is I buy bread whenever I'm like near these bakeries. Or, like, if I'm driving past I'm like, Oh, I should stop at CVS and get a bag. So I bought a sea wolf baguette the other day and then we didn't use it for like four days and we we ate it last night and toasted it and it was still delicious. So there you go. That's my winner.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:59
Alright. That's pretty good. That's
Molly 25:00
my standard right now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:02
I'm back when we were working on the sourdough episode, which is like the most work we've ever put, or at least the worst work I've ever put into one episode I was baking bread at home a lot. I haven't been lately, but like my homemade bread was getting pretty good. I
Molly 25:13
wanted to tell you that I ignored Silvia for about six weeks long enough for her to get like a like a almost black layer of hooch on top Sylvia
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:21
is our sourdough starter.
Molly 25:24
Anyway, and Matthew gave her to me with a like a Google Doc with a link to a Google doc and it was instructions on how to feed Silvia and then the final instruction was trying not to kill Sylvia.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:36
All of my gifts come with a Google Doc. I am
Molly 25:40
it's true. It is true. Anyway, so I was really devoted. I mean, I had a note in my calendar where like once weekly feed Sylvia I was keeping her in the fridge anyway, but I let her go for like six weeks and you know the like liquids separated and she started to smell all who is hissing out there some hissing at me. She started to smell really? linkery. Yeah, anyway, I fed her yesterday and guys, she's back.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:08
Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to kill us. Yeah, no, I didn't kill Sylvia. In fact, nevermind.
Molly 26:14
Okay, here we go. garlic knots.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:17
Oh, yeah, guys, I
Molly 26:18
had my first garlic Not tonight.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:20
This is so puzzling to me.
Molly 26:22
So yes. When? So I was formerly a part of Dino's tomato pie upstairs.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:28
You're formerly part of a bi
Molly 26:30
and I was formerly part of a pi. I escaped. I think that there is some sort of a nursery rhyme about me. Anyway. Anyway. But anyway, I remember when Brandon was deciding what to put on the windows upstairs and one of them was like world famous garlic knots. And I think he got some like nasty Yelp reviews from people being like, don't claim that you've been around for decades. It's been around for decades. It's It's disrespectful to restaurants that have
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:59
Yeah, no, that's really sorry, come late, but I
Molly 27:01
had my first garlic not here tonight.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:05
That I don't know what to say to that. Like, I don't know. And then to be fair, like I probably had my first garlic not like a couple years ago, but they're so good. So
Molly 27:15
So our garlic knots like you know of necessity always served with tomato sauce. Is that like a requirement?
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:24
Well, I mean, but I think Marin I mean, Marin area is a tomato sauce, right? Oh, okay. It's gonna be marinara sauce. I think Yeah, they usually have a marinara, tomato dipping. I'm not taking sides on the whole marondera tomato piece
Molly 27:41
that we had here tonight. I think that it was an uncooked tomato sauce. I think it was the one on the round pie. Right? Okay, you whether you want to call that American era.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:50
Okay. But anyway, I love making garlic knots. They're so easy to make like anytime you have some pizza dough, whether it's homemade or like store bought pizza dough or even like pizza dough from a tube, like you just kind of roll it out into a snake and tie it in a knot and then you toss it with some garlic butter. Like sprinkle it with some garlic, garlic salt or garlic powder. Everybody loves them. It's different. Like Like a garlic bread has the texture of bread and a garlic nod has has more like a chewy pizza texture.
Molly 28:17
Okay, okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:18
And it's so fun to toss the cooked garlic knots in garlic butter. Like it's it's too rare that you get to like make a food and then kind of shake that food off a bat. I can't think of any other examples. Oh no, my
Molly 28:32
dad used to do this weird thing when he This is so weird. So my both of my parents really like making ratchathewi I grew up in Oklahoma anyway but they have very, very different ways of doing it. And what my dad would do is he would cut up all the vegetables you know the zucchini, the eggplant, the onions, the peppers. He would put it all in like a grocery sized brown paper bag with like a couple tablespoons of flour and then would fold it over and shake it all up with the idea being that then when he like browned it all in a Dutch oven and added some like you know canned tomato or whatever it would thicken it seems but he just got flour like everywhere.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:14
Okay, yeah. Okay fernet is it wait I have to ask you again. Is it for an A or for net? It's for Nat also for Nat Yeah, we're gonna get shots of the answers please yes.
Molly 29:27
Okay for net Matthew memory lane.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:29
I not positive I know what this is but I think I'm about to have my first shot of it. I may have had it in something it's like an herbal liqueur.
Molly 29:39
Okay, it is it's one of those like it's just Steve it's a deja Steve it's it's within the category of Mari it is an Italian bitterly Kerr it's generally consumed after a meal Matthew's gonna hate it. Thank
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:52
you so much. I
Unknown Speaker 29:53
can't
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:53
do I have to shoot it or shoot it? I'm
Unknown Speaker 29:56
going to sip it huh?
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:00
Hmm,
Molly 30:00
I love that. It's kind of it's a little bit like drinking caramel mixed with toothpaste.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:07
That's really apt.
Unknown Speaker 30:09
I love it. No, I
Molly 30:11
remember. So I hope that a lot of you have been to Montana, the bar right down the street. Yeah. So when Montana first open and maybe still now one of the things that they used to always serve was I think they called it like the bartender's handshake. And it was, it was a Rachel,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:27
look that up on urban dictionary.
Molly 30:29
I think it was a Rachel's ginger beer with a shot of fernet, which is a brilliant combination.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:34
That sounds like it would be good because Rachel's ginger beer is sweet and like, like, it sounds like it'd be a good compliment. Anyway,
Molly 30:39
how do you feel about this? Um,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:41
I mean, I think it's doing what it's supposed to do, I guess. I think the toothpaste thing So recently, like, um, as you may know, sometimes I like to travel to Japan. And it was something I learned on a recent trip to Japan is that root beer is not very popular in Japan. And people say like, when they taste it, it tastes like toothpaste, because it's got like that winter wintergreen flavor to it. And I had never noticed this before it was pointed out. And now when I drink root beer, I can't notice anything else.
Molly 31:11
Yeah, no, it's really weird. What are other flavors where you get so used to the whole of it that you can't actually tell what's going on in there?
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:19
I mean, I think I think like the whole get used to the whole thing. Coca Cola knows what's going on in the whole. I think I think Coca Cola, like like cola flavor is a combination of like citrus, cinnamon and vanilla. But like when it's well balanced. You don't really taste any of those things.
Molly 31:39
I was thinking something that wasn't a soda.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:41
Okay?
Molly 31:43
But I'm just gonna keep sitting here waiting for you to answer it because I don't
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:48
have any ideas. Something that well, it's got to be some kind of candy right? where you're like, Alright, the thing is here, turn it back. Okay. Thank you for the fernet I'm coming around on Okay,
Molly 31:59
okay. Oh, okay. This is fun. okra. Okay. Okay, I'll take memory lane. Yeah. All right. So when I was growing up, I made this really good friend at day camp in one summer Her name was Paige Cleveland, her dad Vic. If your name is Vicki, you have to own a bar and he owned a bar and the bar is called vz. D is and it still exists in Oklahoma disease. But anyway, that was the first time I ever had fried okra was hanging out with my friend Paige and stopping by her dad's bar during the daytime. We were like 10 you got and for naturally now that I think about it like so her parents were divorced her mom lived in California her dad lived in Oklahoma and now that I think about it like the most prominent part of her dad's house was this massive bed made out of driftwood with animal skins on the bed.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:50
Wow. And now that I think
Molly 32:54
so much sex. It was the okra I hear it makes you think about okra
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:02
Do you think it's like is that based on like the shape of the okra or the I think
Molly 33:05
it's something about like the properties of the okra Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:08
I don't have strong feelings about okra one way or the other. I know it's one of those things that you're supposed to love it or hate it but like i i've not totally gotten on board with the slimy texture so I do like prefer a fried okra but like like a gumbo with okra in it. I like that.
Molly 33:24
I think okra is delicious. Um, a friend of mine. Her husband is from Tennessee and he does this like cold salad that is he doesn't like when he's cooking like a pork shoulder. Okay, he will blanch some okra like just really really briefly and you and cut it up into maybe like thirds Yeah, with wedges of a really delicious ripe tomato and like a sweet onion like a Walla Walla or have a Dahlia or something like that and dress it with red wine vinegar and olive oil and it's so delicious. I do crunchy quality. It's not slimy
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:03
okra i think is one
Molly 34:06
grill it
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:06
needs one of the attractive vegetables smoking and green grill it
Molly 34:11
Wow but it's so small Do you like thread it on the skewer? I'm sorry Matthew. You're gonna have to get down now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:19
Yeah, we swap posts every smoke it smoke
Molly 34:25
it or you grill it? I feel like this is the beginning of a song you're
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:30
like okay, so it was like a giant driftwood bet like the bed frame was made out of driftwood.
Molly 34:35
It was you know, it was like you know when you come upon like an entire tree that's been tossed around in the ocean for a while and is washed up on the shore and some teenager has been using it to build a lien to to have sex under
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:47
Yep, it's all sex out.
Molly 34:48
It was like built out every time I go to the beach.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:52
Do you think he had to chase off the teenagers before building the bed
Molly 34:55
very handsome. He was like kind of strawberry blonde but like tan and like How many normally against
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:01
you think like from like a bunch of different animals like a cow
Molly 35:06
I think it was just a cow It was like a splotchy one
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:25
wow really racking up a bill on that buzzer okay this one is What number are we on? Surely
Molly 35:31
we're up to
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:32
10 from Bay
Molly 35:35
Oh from Bay Okay, have you ever fallen bait at home
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:37
I flung bait at home I'm so glad this came up because I have fallen bait at home and not just in a sexual way. So I recently have been making this this recipe that is for pulled like oven pulled pork and it's from serious eats it's from friend of the show Kenji Lopez alt and for reasons I don't know like whether this has anything to do with making the recipe taste better or whether it's just cool to burn stuff. You pour some bourbon on to the pork shoulder before it goes in the oven and then light it up and and flung Bay it until it's done until until the all the alcohol burns off. And it is so satisfying to set things on fire. Like I was absolutely a pyromaniac when when I was a child and like you know, I would like you know, one time one time I was melting some wax on the stove when I was a kid and it exploded and luckily I wasn't
Molly 36:31
injured how the great Seattle fire happened with like somebody melting whack This
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:36
was in Portland but yes there's a strong wind if you go to the mohai There's a song about the great Seattle fire and it started
Molly 36:44
it doesn't start with you smoke it or you grill
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:50
yes and there's a singing there's a singing glue pot because it was like a glue pot caught fire and that's how the fire started. And like definitely go to Ohio and meet this singing glue pot. It's great.
Molly 37:03
Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:04
what was it What were we one bag one bag so yeah, so so like you get to you get to like light a big piece of meat on fire in your kitchen. And Kenji says it's okay
Molly 37:15
wait a minute didn't we do an episode that involve Bananas Foster
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:20
foster yes
Molly 37:20
which is also like involves fallen bang
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:23
right need to contrive a way to burn something like set something on fire every so I
Molly 37:28
grew up with so so you know as with most of us my
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:33
bowl of paper right here
Molly 37:34
my my like, you know, some of my food prejudices come from my family and I remember my mom like seeing Bananas Foster on menus in Oklahoma City and sort of scoring it as this leg old school thing. But then Matthew and I had Bananas Foster and I was like this thing it deserves to come back from the dead and have like a sequel and a part three and like it's it needs to go on and on. It's so good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:03
That is an amazing coincidence because on my memory lane My mom used to threaten me with bananas and ROM like if you know if you don't behave like I'm gonna make you eat bananas and rum. She's here she's, this is this is true. And you know, it turns out bananas and rum is delicious.
Molly 38:23
And it's allowed says friend of the show Kenji Lopez. Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:27
yes, Kenji. Friends of the show, Kenji Lopez alt says you can curl it anywhere. Oh, we're being played on music. Okay, so I want to do more. Code, guys. It's
Molly 38:39
been a really big we do one more. Art. Okay, fine. Okay. Okay. All right. You pick it. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:47
This is this one.
Molly 38:48
This is the last one and then you can watch us sit in agony and come up with our closing joke. Okay. Oh, right. artichokes? Okay. listener Shelly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:56
Oh, can we do one less than this?
Molly 39:00
All right. artichokes? Okay, so Matthew, do you cook artichokes at home? No, you don't really?
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:07
I never.
Molly 39:08
I feel like I probably cook like a dozen artichokes a year. Wow. Which I think is more than I cook anything else actually.
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:16
Anything like more than pasta? Ah, no, no,
Molly 39:20
no, no, no. But like I've really got it down to an art. Have you ever stabbed yourself on the little spiny thing when you're the spiny leaves, right? You only do it once and then you like you learn to respect the artichoke. You learn how to like wield your scissors to cut off the stuff you develop a system cut off the stuff very specific at this point in the show. Matthew, do you have anything to say? Well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:43
I mean, I think I think I've just learned that I Flom Bay more often than I artichoke. Like like wait for the show. Laurie who is also in the audience has occasionally made an artichoke and i and i like the flavor of an artichoke and I like that. It's that it's so complicated to eat. But it's not it's not something that I'm gonna like get into, like on my own of ionic core.
Molly 40:04
So I have no problem getting involved with like, you know, one of the large like globe artichokes, okay, that's pretty darn easy to prepare, very easy to cook, Matthew, you just like steam it. Very easy, you can do it. However, chefs are constantly trying to get us to use those tiny little artichokes. By the Yes. Oh my god. Like if you have bought any kind of cookbook that was all produced by a descendant of Alice Waters. It has something in there that involves the tiny little artichokes where by the time you pare them down, you've got like, a dimes worth of artichoke heart, okay, that I find really demoralizing. I always feel okay. I feel like I'm being talked down to when somebody is Chef or
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:52
both okay,
Molly 40:53
but I never even get to the point of being near the vegetable because I read the recipe and I'm like, Guys, this is like what you do when you have like an army of like cooks?
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:03
This is not what make each of them like prepare one of these baby artists in the trenches in the in the train. Yes, the cook the cook army trenches. Yeah.
Molly 41:11
We should have stopped.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:14
Like, yeah, the show the show that always takes it a little bit too far.
Unknown Speaker 41:20
Yeah. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:21
So we need to wrap up with our the segment that we do every single week since episode one. What have we learned?
Molly 41:27
What have we learned? We have learned well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:31
I can't stop thinking about this driftwood bad. Like that's like, I don't remember.
Molly 41:36
We talked a lot about cannibalism. We determined that no, human body parts are crunchy. That was interesting. Like these two things go together.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:43
You know what I think could be crunchy. Your lobes.
Molly 41:48
cartilage. Yeah. More and more like you ever had like a like a like a pig's ear? Or like, like a head cheese right? Like, you know, that's pretty crunchy.
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:00
So glad back around nappy.
Molly 42:01
love talking about cheese. Anyway, yeah, so Okay, so yeah, I think maybe cartilage your nappy, if you were gonna if you if you were Are you a biter?
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:17
Like Like when I when I sit down to eat a meal when you're
Molly 42:20
when you're in your driftwood bed
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:23
sticking with the meal thing Oh, okay. Love to bite into a couch zone or calzone. I'll go both ways. Okay.
Molly 42:32
You heard it here first.
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:34
Um Alright, so I guess we learned we learned more and more things on this episode than I think on any other episode or or set of 11 episodes ever.
Molly 42:43
I definitely learned you grill it or you smoke it or you
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:45
smoke it
Molly 42:46
and anything we're missing and
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:48
you think that an animal skin that might someone might put on their bed like as a as a covering cheese splotchy cow. Just like an entire whole pocked? No, that would be a worse word. I don't think you know what better means.
Molly 43:10
Okay, anyway, um, so I want to, I'm gonna stop.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:14
Yes. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 43:15
I
Molly 43:16
would like to thank all of you for being here. tonight. I would like to thank producer Abby and and producers husband, Brandon, for for making the show possible in so many different ways.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:30
We think both Brandon's already. Oh,
Molly 43:32
we should also think Brandon Pettit, who's not here tonight. But who generously allowed us to use this space. We've been eating his delicious pizza tonight.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:41
Thank you to our bartender, Josh.
Molly 43:47
And thank you for listening, watching and listening.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:54
And listening. Thank you
Molly 43:55
for watching and listening to spilled milk. The show
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:57
that you watch it or you listen it Okay, thanks. I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.
Molly 44:05
I'm Molly weissenberg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:07
Bye.
You saying are you smoke it